Christmas Recap

A few pictures before we get to the Christmas stuff. Here's our house on the 22nd. I just want to sing "walking in a winter wonderland" every time I see this picture. Nevermind that the snow became a total pain. Can you believe that I actually miss it now?!



Grace has been pretty determined to hold her own bottle. She only gets one a day, so her practice is pretty limited. She ripped the bottle out of her dad's hands with a "I can do it myself, thank you very much." look on her face and then proceeded to down the rest of it on her own. If only we could teach her to get it out of the fridge and warm it herself.
Guess who started sitting like a big girl.....

This picture cracks me up. My cat, Oreo, can only be a good sport for so long. She has a major scowl on her face and Grace is in the background just screaming her head off and trying to scoot towards the cat. Once this kid gets mobile, the cats don't stand a chance!


OK, on to Christmas. I must say, it is my absolute favorite time of year. I was really excited for Grace's First Christmas too. We made it out of Portland (finally). The trip was absolute hell. I'll have to spare you my little rant about ODOT and their absolut inability to keep I5 safe. I'll save that for another blog...and possibly a letter to the editor. It took us almost 6 hours to do a 3 hour trip. 3 of those hours spent from our house to Salem. That's right...SALEM! I digress....

Once we made it to Roseburg we had a wonderful time. Grace was played with constantly and was exhausted by the end of each day, not to mention the 5 naps she needed during the day.

We visited all of the family, including a visit with Grace's Great Grandparents. Such a cute picture!

I'm not sure if Grace liked the gifts or the wrapping paper best...

Here is Aaron with his other first love...a glass of morning bubblie.
Here she is with Uncle Nick and Aunt Jana.

We miss everyone already! It was wonderful to be able to visit with all of our family. We miss them, and so does Grace! She loved the entertainment. That's all for now!

Hope you all had a Merry Christmas!

More snow pictures....

Grace: "What is all that white stuff? I want to check it out"


Grace: "PLEEEEAAASE can I go out?"

Grace: "Sweet, I'm out but I'm not sure what I think about this. I didn't realize it would be SO cold."

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow

Thanks to our friends Ron and Shirley, Grace has a perfect snow hat. Never mind that it's way too cold for her to go outside, but she really does enjoy watching the snow through the window. We had about 3 inches on the ground from a few days ago and it's been dumping lots of snow since this morning. Here are a few pictures.

Now, before I get any "worst pet owner" comments by anyone, you should all know that the cats have been inside all week and totally have Cabin Fever. Oreo was begging to go outside with me and was really saddened to see that the snow was still there and was actually getting deeper. She did enjoy a few minutes of chasing snowballs that I was tossing through the yard. Then she quickly realized that her feet were freezing and came back to the porch to take a break. Life is so rough when you're a cat!

Grace is 5 months old

It's hard to believe Gracie celebrated her 5 month birthday this past Saturday. We got some real snow yesterday (you know, the kind that actually sticks on the ground). I was hoping to go out and build a little snowman family, but it was a toasty 21 degrees today (7 degrees including the wind chill factor) and neither Aaron or I were interested in spending any time outside. Grace is very interested in the snow and loves to yell at it as it falls.

She has been busy getting ready for Christmas and has been on a stakeout in front of the Christmas Tree waiting for Santa. She also loves her little red Santa sleeper. Psssst...Grace. He doens't come for another week!


Our latest adventure has been giving her some solid food. We just started this past week and has sampled sweet potatoes and butternut squash. I made some food a few weeks ago and froze it in ice cube trays. It’s amazing how long it takes her to eat once ice cube size serving. She wasn’t very interested in the sweet potatoes but really liked the squash. She is also obsessed with drinking water from a glass. She thinks she is quite the big girl when she does this. My mom bought some of those little Tupperware cups for her similar to the ones I used as a kiddo. They even came with sippy cup lids, but Grace thinks she is a big girl and refuses to drink from the sippy cup lid – thank you very much.

I call this photo "Squash? What squash?! I don't know what happened to it but I certainly didn't eat it!"

Grace isn't a big fan of 'tummy time' on the floor but really seems to like it in her crib. I think she likes being up high and looking around the room. Aaron snapped this one of her this week while she was playing in her crib.

That's all for now from the Gores. MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!

Random, Misc., Potpourri

Since I have neglected the blog lately, I have quite a few random shots to add. I'll narrate as I go:

Grace is VERY interested in the kitties lately. Oh, and the cats are VERY interested in avoiding her at all costs....even if it means staying outside in the cold.



I love the remote! I think I'll be like daddy soon and become a couch commando in no time.

Daddy and Grace reading the story of the Beavers loss in the Sunday paper. They were both very sad.

Grace had a great visit from Grandpa and Grandma over Thanksgiving. They kept her entertained from sun up to sun down!

Why Grandpa, what interesting white hair you have. Mind if I pull it?

I'm so happy!!!

Hungry Hungry Hippo Hat.

Yawn!!!

Man, this whole "up at 4am" thing is really making me tired! I think I'll start sleeping thru the night again. I'm un such a better mood when I do!
Love,
Grace

I'm back

Blow, blow, blow. That's just me blowing the dust off my blog. It has been quite a while since I've actually had time to blog. I'll have to keep this short since princess is going to wake up any minute. I have a few pictures from my friend Erin at our Mom's Group. Her son Wesley (one of Grace's boyfriends) was graduating that day, so we took a few pictures of the kids on Wesley's last day. I'll go ahead and interpret what is happening in each picture. You know, in case you don't speak baby...

Wesley: This is FUN. I love having my picture taken

Grace: I'm not sure sure about this boy with his arm around me. How's my makeup? Do I look OK?

Grace: I DON'T LIKE BOYS!

Wesley: What did I do? Man, this girl sure can scream.

Wesley: There, there Grace. Everything is OK. Our mom's found our paci's so we're OK now.

Grace: PHEW!!! Feeling better now...I think.

Grace: I'm not sure I like boys holding my hand!!!!!

Wesley: Seriously, enough with the pictures. This girl is a drama queen and I'm being the perfect gentleman.

Wesley: I'm not sure I'm ready for a girlfriend. Women are so complicated!

Grace: Did all of that crying ruin my mascara?

Lastly, here is a quick shot I snapped this morning. Grace has really gotten into reading. I like to think it's because she is a total genius already. Oh, she also likes to eat books and then spit up on them too. Not sure where the genius is in that, but I'm hopeful :-)